It is unlikely that all of the new models will be released at once. The ones that are done will be released and then more will be added throughout the patch cycle.

The new Garrosh model has a lot of bones and facial animation that could be similar to what we see in new character models.

Garrosh also provides a nice test case to see if players want their character to look like that.

The new character models are being worked on very carefully to avoid changing how the characters feel, especially the animations.

There is a lot more to animate now with beards, ponytails, and hands with actual fingers. The animations have to have the same emotion as the old models, but just look better.

The new models and animations are compared to the old ones at weekly art meetings to ensure that they feel right.

Future Plans

The new toy items added in Mists of Pandaria take up a lot of inventory space, so they are high on the priority list of things to remove from player bags. Heirlooms are next on the list, followed by tabards, but there is no solid timeline on when this will be available yet.

Spectator mode for raids and arenas isn't likely for the near future, as it would require a lot of tech and there are other more high priority things that need to be done first.

There are no major changes coming to holiday events, just the usual yearly updates. Almost all of the events have been updated in the past and are in a good place now. Time would be better spent adding new content to the game rather than changing up Hallow's End yet again.

Players invest a lot of time into the last boss of an expansion, but the awesome gear that they got is replaced fairly quickly in the next expansion. The heirloom weapons from Garrosh are an attempt to compensate for that, as they will usually be the best leveling weapon you can get.

Moving Dalaran to use in the Siege of Orgrimmar was considered, but it would have caused serious performance issues for many players. It also may have reduced the impact that players had as far as feeling like heroes. Players should feel like they were the ones to defeat Garrosh, not that Dalaran showed up and they did the job.

The team considered changing racials in Patch 5.4, as a lot of the top guilds are switching to Horde. The impact it has on the game is limited to a handful of guilds in the world, so changing it for everyone because a handful of guilds feel that the Horde racials will make the difference in PvE ended up not being worth it.

Racials are really supposed to be a flavor thing rather than something to balance the game around, so it isn't likely that we will see changes in the near future.

During Cataclysm there was a revamp of the graphics system by adding shadows to the game, which required raising the ambient light in every zone, as the shadows made it too dark. This resulted in the night time having more ambient light than it used to.

Patch 5.4 will have a test case for darker nights in Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

PvE

There isn't as much competition with Challenge Modes as the developers had hoped.

PvE competition is a great thing to have in the game. World Firsts are nice, but they happen once in a patch cycle. It would be nice to see some of the Challenge Mode concepts in raiding, but just speed clearing the raid might not be the right thing.

There will be another pass of the Valor system in the next expansion, but you shouldn't be able to cap Valor by just doing a raid that week.

The Valor system is intended to get players to do a variety of content that they wouldn't normally do, but there has to be a balance.

An idea for the future is adding a system similar to the Conquest catch up, allowing players that return to earn more Valor to catch up to everyone else. Not having to log in every single day might also be something to look at.

The idea of Heroic only bosses is nice when they fit the story of the raid, but Ra-Den wasn't executed as well as it could have been because all of the testing was done internally. We might see another one in the future, but first they have to figure out a better way to test the boss.

The team doesn't think that a small amount of players getting a legendary cloak after working towards it for an entire expansion will be a problem in the long run.

Cataclysm

The developers are happier with Mists of Pandaria than they were with Cataclysm.

Cataclysm did a good job improving the old world, but there wasn't a strong endgame. Mists of Pandaria made a point of adding more and better quality endgame content.

Mists of Pandaria was slightly weaker thematically, as there was no big looming end of the world disaster, which is something that players seem to really enjoy.

People spent a lot of time in Shattrath, Dalaran, and now Shrine, but Cataclysm didn't add a new city or continent to call home.

Redoing classic dungeons to make them into Heroic Dungeons was a nice concept that came out of Cataclysm, as they have been very popular and fun to create.

In Cataclysm Thrall felt like the hero, but players just felt like they were helping him, rather than also being heroes.

Progress on the Next Expansion

The concept artists, environment artists, and the level design team are the first groups to start working on a new expansion.

The encounter team is the last team to move to the new expansion, as they are still finishing up Patch 5.4 and doing the final tuning.

The release of an expansion partially depends on how long it takes to build and add quests to the new zones. This is why the final patch of an expansion usually doesn't have a lot of content that involves the exterior level design team, as they are already working on the zones for the next expansion.

The Timeless Isle is off of the coast of the Jade Forest and is made with art assets from the Jade Forest, but presented in a completely different way. This allowed the team to add a new area without slowing down the work on the next expansion.

Misc

The Burdens of Shaohao came from a part of the company that normally doesn't work on things like that and already has a lot of commitments, so there is no solid date for another similar series yet.

The traditional player housing in MMOs isn't very interesting, maybe with the exception of Ultima Online. This was because you owned part of the world, making the area have real value. The idea of having an instanced chunk of the world that is decorated inside and no one will ever see isn't interesting, so housing in WoW would have to go beyond just visual customization with some gameplay elements or something else actually interesting.

Offline progression for WoW could be interesting, but all the game has right now are things like daily cooldowns for some professions or the Tiller's farm.

Revamping Fishing has been on the to-do list for years now, but it keeps getting pushed back.

The guild level system already has some nice perks and the devs weren't able to come up with enough good perks to add more guild levels in Mists of Pandaria. Adding more levels also requires more achievements and other items, as well as making all new guilds level even more to get all of those perks.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Classes
Re: AE heals. Remember, the encounters are balanced around the class abilities. If we chill out AE heals, the encounters won't demand them. (Source)

Here's a good question, do you think the game would benefit from classes being stripped down to iconic abilities + rotation?
If the game wasn't 10 old, yes, I think that design is superior. Radically changing WoW now is likely not the right call. (Source)

you guys talk about ability bloat and I see the best way to address that is the revert some of the class homogenization
Sure. What useful ability are you willing to give up? (Source)
(That wasn't supposed to be sarcastic BTW.) (Source)

Yet another reason to not consider feedback? Simply because 100% of the playerbase doesn't agree?
We appreciate (and follow) all the discussions out there on action bar bloat and what, if anything, should be done. (Source)
If every time I say X, you see Y, it's going to be hard to have a conversation. (Source)

Wouldn't making new classes be much less practical than altering current pure trees?
You can make the argument that adding new roles to existing classes is more work than a new class. (Source)
With a new class, you have little baggage or other constraints. Sky's the limit. (Source)
But work load really isn't the issue here. It's more about whether the game needs either one. (Source)

Have you thought about changing talents to let players pick their rotation, rather than utility spells?
Yes. (Source)

I know class balance is hard but is also the most common complaint I hear when I lose a guildy
I hear that too of course, but I have to wonder if that's the real reason or just an easy one. (Source)
If you tried to play Balance or Ret in Blackwing Lair, you were just doing it wrong. (Source)
But these days, most players can do whatever they want. Player skill determines meters for most of us. (Source)

The differences are really minimal, and boring. And then you look at monk, and how different their specs are.
To be fair, the monk specs are all different roles. Most of our classes feel different in different roles. (Source)

So the solution is to make pure DPS obsolete... Why should I pick a Mage if I can have a Priest? Bread & Water?
Not sure how you read that from my statement. I was saying it's not cool when some classes are DPS and some are support. (Source)
But it's also not cool if everyone chooses paladin / druid / shaman because they can be versatile AND max DPS. (Source)

I'm sure that Blizzard Devs don't have a super secret WW rotation. I'm seeing T16 & trinkets as very large gain.
There have been times when players never figured out an optimal rotation that we designed around. Doesn't happen often. (Source)would you mind giving a specific example from a past expansion maybe? I'm really curious
One of the Balance druid set bonus - glyph interactions in Cataclysm. I can't remember which patch - maybe Firelands. (Source)

Have the devs considered replacing/drastically changing some of the over-similar Pure DPS class specs?
Yeah, I'm working on a blog on how we could design multiple specs in the same role in one class. Many Qs, few As, sadly. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Regarding Hunter pet buffs, any thought to letting hunters chose the buff they want on the pet they want to use?
Potentially. It's one of the last issues with letting a hunter choose whatever pet family they want. (Source)

Ever thought of bringing Eyes of the Beast back at all?
Yes, but it would be challenging. Some of the code was excised. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)The healing penalty hasn't even been brought down on PTR, that's atrocious - I kept the you tried sticker up in good faith tho
RJW isn't a "better at AE button." It's a cheap button that lets you also do single target damage and healing while it's up. (Source)
Xuen is a cooldown. RJW is sustained. For a healer sometimes you want one and sometimes the other. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)i would love you, if the holy paladin would be more tbc/wotlk/beginning of cata next expansion, i miss my paladin
What do you mean specifically? Spam Flash of Light? Be a tank healer? Curious. (Source)he's probably referring to how worthless single target cast time heals are to cast these days. it's all HR/EF/prism.
As a general statement, we believe we made AE heals (for all healers) too important / effective once again. (Source)
There should be a time and place for single target heals, even non-hots / bubbles. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Have you guys read any of the feedback / ideas regarding Combo Points? Some interesting threads over MmoC Rogue
Yeah. I think at the high level, it's worth asking if keeping them on the target is the right design. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Can you please make maelstrom weapon a resource or give enhancement a resource in general?
To devil's advocate, does every spec need a resource? Does having resources make specs feel too similar? (Source)

Any word on compensation for the Healing Rain input lag fixes that significantly nerfed Resto Shaman?
Healing Rain is so much stronger in 5.4 that we don't think compensation is needed. I think we made a blue post about this. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Demo 4pc is consuming demonic fury, and a charge of HoG/Chaos Wave on the ptr. Is this intended or a bug? Been posting in ....
We fixed this awhile ago. If still happening maybe it broke again. (Source)

Any word on the ember generation change to make up for the loss of rain of fire ember generation?
We're balancing around their DPS, not ember generation. Is the issue you're worried DPS is low or you like embers? (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Ultimately, Arms has a 20-25% adv. on cleave, fury is 10-15% on single target. A 30-40% delta means reforging every boss.:\
Those numbers seem based on idealized situations and not SoO boss fights. (Source)

OP's rage efficiency is so close to slam's that it's best to spam slam than risk rage capping and wasting it on heroic strike.
Should be a pretty wide range between being at 25 rage and 130 rage. If you end up capped, yeah probably should have Slammed. (Source)

Can you please consider Curoar's ideas for Arms before its inevitable nerf?
We're okay with Arms doing great cleave and AE. Else, it's just a dead spec in PvE (unless it beats Fury & Fury is the dead spec.) (Source)The issue is the delta, a 5-10% adv. is fine, 20+% is too much. Plus, it's just not fun to play in its current state.
When you combine those two arguments, sounds like you are really saying "Arms should be weak in PvE so I can always be Fury." (Source)The thread linked is filled with people who like to play arms, but feel that the current mechanics of it are terrible.
We know there are warriors who want to play Arms though and felt like they were giving up too much to do so in 5.2. (Source)
We were trying to make Fury more proc-based and unpredictable and Arms more steady. Some players prefer one feel to the other. (Source)

Will you ever fix Heroic Leap in PvP ?
It is difficult because players can abuse vertical movement to get into places they should not be in BGs. (Source)
We agree the situation is not ideal and it's unfortunate to punish everyone because some can exploit. We haven't given up yet. (Source)

Can we expect any fury warrior changes for this upcoming patch? There is hardly any what so ever. If so when can we expect it?
We don't think Fury needs mechanics changes (except for DW polearms). We are still balancing DPS. (Source)

Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
The current SSD prices are stable, with most SSDs under $1 per gigabyte when on sale.

The new Haswell CPUs from Intel are here and they run a little bit on the warmer side. Depending on how much you want to overclock, you may need to spend a bit more for a better CPU cooler like the NH-D14 or H90.

Unless you are doing a lot of video rendering or something that is similarly multithreaded, you do not need the 4770K and should spend that money elsewhere.

jesus, 25% is all? been waiting for these for what seems like forever. seriously, the first time I heard they were reworking the models was at the beginning of cataclysm... I don't think I can wait much longer. The games fun, but it's no secret the characters need an upgrade. They just look dumb in the newer zones where everything has better movement in their models. I wouldn't even care if they kept most of the designs essentially the same, just fix the glaring problems like the humans and how they run like they are marching for hitler with stiff legs, and their gargantuan hands and feet. Add some flowing hair and facial expressions. Shit, IDK... I feel like a dev team could probably brainstorm for an hour or so and point out the same shit I am.

Orc, but I really hope they don't make it anything like Garrosh - one of the ugliest models ingame. Just make my ass round, not square. Trolls, Tauren, Humans, Dwarfs, Night Elves and Gnomes also need improvements.

They are obviously talking about the new animations. Not the skin itself.

The traditional player housing in MMOs isn't very interesting, maybe with the exception of Ultima Online. This was because you owned part of the world, making the area have real value. The idea of having an instanced chunk of the world that is decorated inside and no one will ever see isn't interesting, so housing in WoW would have to go beyond just visual customization with some gameplay elements or something else actually interesting.

Like in RIFT, where you can invite players to your instanced chunk of the world that you decorated so nicely?

Moving Dalaran to use in the Siege of Orgrimmar was considered, but it would have caused serious performance issues for many players.

Is the WoW engine so fail that it can't support a floating city outside of Org?

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

During Cataclysm there was a revamp of the graphics system by adding shadows to the game, which required raising the ambient light in every zone, as the shadows made it too dark. This resulted in the night time having more ambient light than it used to.

BS. WoW had baked in light maps shadows before shadow maps in Cata - in fact we still have them now; just set "shadow quality" to low. It wasn't too dark then, why is it too dark now?

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Patch 5.4 will have a test case for darker nights in Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Darnassus is the city that needs darker nights (and days) the most. They ruined the place with the cata ambient lighting changes.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

The traditional player housing in MMOs isn't very interesting, maybe with the exception of Ultima Online. This was because you owned part of the world, making the area have real value. The idea of having an instanced chunk of the world that is decorated inside and no one will ever see isn't interesting, so housing in WoW would have to go beyond just visual customization with some gameplay elements or something else actually interesting.

You could give keys to your friends that allow them to access the public areas of your house ... Permissions can be set to allow all guild members access too.

Tough choice. Down syndrome male humans are terrible to look at, but then you have Draenei males which are even worse. But we see more humans than Draenei by far so it's tough to pick which I'd like to see changed the most. I guess Draenei because they could look awesome if they were more like their Eredar counterparts in looks, or Velen. But instead they have weird ugly hair, terrible goat hooves, and a weird protruding chest. And odd tentacles that could look a lot better. Just ugly all in all which is why they were the most hated race for so long. They were only behind Blood Elves as most hated race at one point which was in TBC. Funny how that changed to Belves being the most popular horde race by far. I remember on the realm I playd on and the forums there was so much Blood Elf hate. When people announced they were going Horde only because they could be a belf they'd get flamed so hard. My my how things change.

As for horde, I'd love to see Orcs changed. I love how their body shapes are and how they feel, but they need better facial animations and such. I love the new Garrosh model for example. Except I think his head could be bigger still. Trolls I want changed the most though. They're so ugly man. Is it any wonder why people despise them? They look goofy, have hunch backs and giant feet that stick out.

If Blizzard would let us have the option to be one of the other bulky trolls I'd be one in a heartbeat. And I don't mean one of the Gurubashi Berserker behemoths. Just another regular troll but normal!

Tauren could use an update too. Terrible fur quality, lol. Undead would be nice to see changed as well because torn plate armor looks so cheap.

Cutscenes? Not a single cutscene in revamped SM or Scholo, or Deadmines or SFK for that matter. Not even revamped RFC has a cutscene.

There is in Deadmines, if you count the bit at the start of the final boss fight (which I was, since it's a part where you stand around doing nothing while waiting for the story to be told for the 10000th time). I was referring more to the current design philosophy though, ie. MoP instances with their linearity and lots of standing around doing nothing while waiting for the story to be told for the 10000th time.

The team considered changing racials in Patch 5.4, as a lot of the top guilds are switching to Horde. The impact it has on the game is limited to a handful of guilds in the world, so changing it for everyone because a handful of guilds feel that the Horde racials will make the difference in PvE ended up not being worth it.

Racials are really supposed to be a flavor thing rather than something to balance the game around, so it isn't likely that we will see changes in the near future.

This is absolutely bullshit that they are going to do nothing about it. The fact that horde had a 5% dps increase on almost half the bosses in ToT was utter crap. not to mention in every possible way horde racials are vastly better compared to alliance.

Best 2 handed weapons are always axes. horde get a bonus to that. horde have racials that make there pets do more damage which makes them the best hunters/locks and can do more damage with bows, orc racials for a mini trinket. trolls for a mini fucking bloodlust is OP as shit. resit to stuns, more health for tanks, AoE silence the list goes on.

you ask how this really matters it drives populations of servers. more and more people who arnt full retards and pve go horde which makes it very difficult to recruit decent people if your alliance. plus it also affects world pvp. its really hard to have world pvp if your entire server is ONE FACTION.

If you go to wpw progress which shows populations and look at the top 30 servers for US with the highest pop so 5k or greater 20 of them are horde. top 10 servers with 10k or more people 7/10 are horde. for EU 9/13 top pop server are horde.

Gotta love Blizz reasoning. "We noticed that top guilds were switching to horde, but we feel the racials are probably fine anyway."

Derp derp diddly doo.

I think all racials should be profession related for the passives, not something that's going to make any real difference in PvP or PvE. As for the actives, I know there's no easy answer, getting rid of them entirely would add to the overall feeling of homogenization that we've had in the game from cataclysm going forward. I think it's nice to have a few functional differences for the classes, but not when some are obviously overpowered.

Then again, are these guilds also operating under the idea of trying to squeeze 0.00001% more dps/healing/whatever by forcing their raid members into a certain race? Or is it a much more noticeable and obvious bit of overpower we're dealing with?

Can you please make maelstrom weapon a resource or give enhancement a resource in general?
To devil's advocate, does every spec need a resource? Does having resources make specs feel too similar?

Not just no, but heck no. And if I had my way, the paladin class would go back to just using mana.

Originally Posted by Shudder

Racials need to go. I applied to a guild and was denied because I wasn't Orc. It's stupid. I'm not race changing so I can get into Blood Legion wannabes.

Being rejected by the guild probably did you a favor by keeping you from joining bad company. Racials don't need to go because the very small amount of bleeding-edge raid guilds are choosing to spend the $25 to race change. I like the racials having some use instead of dead flavor -- and I have a toon of every race, FYI -- to the point that it would feel very unfair to be penalized for the choices of others. Racials have been such as they are since the creation of WoW, and we don't need to lose yet another aspect of what make WoW

who gives a fuck about identity. Horde dont want them changed because they know they are vastly better. the biggest offender is troll with a mini blood lust and the fact that trolls can be EVERY class in the game other then palys. so you can almost have your entire raid do a personal bl/hero every 2-3 minutes which will make the difference between something dying or not.

25%? Alright I'm starting to wonder if Blizz is taking the new models seriously. I'm excited for the new expac and all but the models are what I've been wanting the most.
All this talk about people getting butt-hurt because their character changes too much is lame. You won't hurt my feelings as long as the models are sexy, sleek, and badass.